The First Wave
by Luna Silvereyes
Summary: Shiki Kawegama has just begun the most popular MMORPG, The World III. The day he logs in for the first time, he sees a year old entry on the forum with a grisly message. A player once logged into The World...and never again logged out.
1. Prelude

The First Wave

Luna Silvereyes

A/N: This is my first .Hack fanfic. I LOVE this series!! I'll do my best to make it come out right. If it doesn't, may I be digitized!!

Prelude

_Welcome to __**The World.**_

_That was what it said on the screen. A click. A few typed keys. I was in. I knew exactly what I wanted to be after reading the manual. I wanted to be a Wavemaster. I customized my character, long black hair with pink highlights along the bangs over my eyes and my neck. My staff held a sapphire amulet hovering in the center of two spikes sticking out vertically. My outfit matched the amulet. _

_Finally, the last step; naming. I would only get once chance to choose and it had to be special. Something everyone would someday know me by, once I surpassed the level of beginner. _

_Aeon. _

_That was it. My name in __**The World**__ would be Aeon. _

_I was ready to begin my adventure. Everything was so perfect. I was beginning the most popular game of the century. _

_How was I to know that it would turn out so wrong?_

A/N: This is the shortest chapter I've ever written, but believe me, they won't all be like this. Looks can be deceiving and I discovered I have a somewhat unique ability to write in the style of whatever I recently watched or read. Kinda helps. Please review and tell me what you think. Oh, and Of Life and Arrangements still has some bugs that need to be worked out. The same applies for Times of Change.


	2. Beginning

A/N: Okay, I'm still working on Of Life and Arrangements, so there will be an update in a few days. I promise. I'm sick right now and have to make this fast, because the Nyquil's starting to kick in as I type this. I'll do my best to get both the feel and the names of towns and player types in this story correct. Please don't hate me.

Beginning

"Wake up!"

Shiki bolted awake with a yell, hurling the covers onto the floor as he was rudely awakened by his younger aunt. Peering blearily up at her from his hunched position on the mattress, it was clear she'd been up for hours. Her long blonde hair was tied back neatly with a ribbon and she stood there in the doorway with her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

"Shiki, are you going to sleep all day?" she snapped. Shiki groaned and flopped back down against the pillow. "Maybe." He said. "Provided you go away."

He knew it was a mistake the moment he said it. He heard the thumping as she stalked over and snatched his leg, yanking him off the mattress with a surprising show of strength for such a little person.

"No, you're not!" she reprimanded. "Just 'cause I ain't your good-for-nothing mother doesn't mean you don't have to listen to me! Get up, you useless sack of potatoes!"

Shiki sat up with a sigh and a yawn. "Aw, come on, Haruka." He whined.

"Don't, 'aw come on, Haruka' me, Shiki. You've got a big day today and I'm not going to let you blow it just because you were too busy with that stupid game to get a decent sleep."

She whirled to his closet and opened the door. "I didn't have time to press your moth-eaten old suit for you, so you'll have to dress corporate casual. Got it?"

Shiki yawned again. "Yeah, yeah." He mumbled. He watched blankly as Haruka bustled about the room, throwing proper attire together for him.

Haruka was his aunt, younger by two years and little sister to his mother. Haruka hated her sister for always stealing everything she got that came her way, including Shiki's father, which Haruka was furious for. Because of this, she often took her misplaced anger out on Shiki, whom she'd taken into her home after he failed at every test life threw at him. His parents had separated and couldn't stand him, he had no other relatives and he knew nothing about how to survive on his own. Fortunately for him, Haruka understood—somewhat. He was twenty-three and she was twenty-one, so most people mistook them for brother and sister or worse, boyfriend and girlfriend. But a quick lash of the tongue from Haruka changed their tunes surprisingly quickly.

"Get up, already, you lazy bum!" she nearly shrieked. "It's almost noon! You're lucky I felt a little pitiful this morning and let you sleep in a bit."

"Gee, thanks a ton." He muttered sarcastically. She sometimes found pleasure in insulting her elder nephew, but he took it in stride, mainly because he'd learned how to drown her out.

"Dork." She mumbled. He smirked. 'Dork' had been her pet-name for him since they were kids.

Yes, their relationship was a strange one. But it was tolerable. He could live with it until his life skills developed.

In the meantime, Haruka had forced him into a job interview at a nearby mailroom for some big industry. All he really wanted to do was play his new game, _**The World III**_, the latest edition. It had been out for a whole year, yet too expensive for him to purchase. It took nearly fourteen months of waiting and saving diligently until he finally had enough to buy it (with a little help from Haruka because he was unable to wait any longer).

The thing was, she wasn't letting him play it. She was forcing him to go to the job interview, instead.

"Now, straighten that tie and tuck in your shirt." Haruka ordered. Shiki acted as though he were a robot obeying orders.

"Come on, come on! You're so damn lazy!"

Shiki sighed in defeat. "I'm ready, Haruka." He muttered.

"Sure, sure, whatever. Lets' go. You're going to be late as it is." Haruka snapped, grabbing his arm and dragging him out the door.

Suddenly, she stopped. She turned and glared at him. "Did you by any chance brush your teeth, yet?"

Shiki blinked. "Uh, no, I haven't yet. Why?"

Haruka's eye twitched. "_Because it smells like fermented bean curd, you bean-brain!_" she shrieked. She shoved him into the bathroom and slammed the door. "_Don't come out of there until they're pearly white, you hear me?!_"

Shiki sighed again as he picked up his toothbrush. _I was going to brush my teeth anyway,_ he thought irritably.

//ooo//

The front door slammed open and Haruka shoved Shiki into the apartment, seething, to put it mildly.

"I cannot _believe _you!" she shrieked. "You were in there a minute and you got fired before you got hired!"

Shiki grinned to himself when she wasn't looking. Okay, so maybe tripping, knocking into a chair, breaking the coffee pot and spilling hot coffee all over his foreman-to-be wasn't exactly the best way to make a good first impression. But at least people noticed him, now.

"So," he ventured. "What do you want me to do?"

Haruka hissed between her teeth. "You're as worthless as your stupid mom." She snapped. "Go and play your dumb game! It's what you wanted, isn't it?"

Shiki shrugged and wandered off to his room.

He sat down at his desk, switched on his computer and took out his terminal screen. He aligned it on his head, grinning in anticipation as the game loaded and he was sent spiraling through the virtual vortex into the root town he'd registered; Carmeda-Gadaleka. His character, a male Heavy-Blade, also named Shiki, appeared by the river running through the center of town. In this version, there were two ways to play the game with your PC; you could either see the game layout through the PC's eyes, or you could watch as you controlled your PC as it moved around. He'd chosen the latter and he had to admit, his choice of costume was pretty cool. He'd picked blue and silver, the same colorations of his gaming hero, Balmung of The Azure Sky. Balmung and Orca had long since vanished from the game, disappearing with the first and second versions. _**The World III**_ was CC. Corporation's attempt to revitalize the game after the second version declined mysteriously after being infiltrated by some kind of wandering AI. Apparently, as Shiki understood, if _**The World III**_ failed, there would be no trying again.

Shiki was still new and wandered onto the bridge, gazing out at the rising sun. Gondolas drifted lazily below him and people milled about, chatting about quests, buying or trading and selling items and waiting for new events to start.

It was so peaceful here. He couldn't understand why anyone would want to leave this place and quit, like some of his friends had.

"This place is great," he said, copying his own thoughts out loud. "I'm never gonna leave."

"Yeah, you say that now." A voice said behind him. Shiki whirled with a yell, drawing his sword. He blinked and lowered his blade in confusion.

"Who are you?" he asked.

Standing before him was a Wavemaster in a green cloak and blue cape with teal hair and dark green eyes. He stared at him seriously, dragging his staff limply behind him.

"Hey." He said. Shiki blinked again. The Wavemaster sighed. "Put that blade away, I mean you no harm. Besides, if you were caught threatening players in the middle of a root town, you'd be punished for sure."

"Who are you?" Shiki asked again. The Wavemaster was only about one-third his size and he scrambled up onto the side of the bridge, gazing out into the distance. "You must answer me one question first." He said.

"Yeah?"

The Wavemaster paused before asking. He shuffled his feet over the side and laid his staff across his lap.

"Tell me," he said ponderously, "What do you expect to accomplish in this game?"

A/N: Short chapter, I know, but please, be nice to me. I don't feel well. -_-;


End file.
